Posts Tagged ‘lego’

Five ingeniously innovative uses for LEGO

November 15th, 2011

LEGO brings out the inventor in all of us. Personally, I never managed to design much other than spectacularly un-aerodynamic aeroplanes and houses that look like they were designed by a mad, colourblind architect. However, some clever folk can make some truly impressive LEGO creations. Here are five of the best YouTube has to offer.

Combination safe


Everyone has their little cache of precious things, their personal treasures. No matter if your treasures are interestingly-shaped rocks and weird feathers, diamonds and designer stuff or 1980s Star Wars figures in original packaging, you need somewhere safe to store them.

What could be safer than an actual working combination safe? Maybe the lair of a covetous dragon, but apart from that, nothing, that’s what.

Desktop computer


It saddens me to say it, but the vast majority of desktop computers are hideous things. Boxy, dull-looking monoliths without the slightest thought given to aesthetics, computers are perhaps the most depressing purchase for the trendy and design-conscious.

To brighten up your PC, reach for your LEGO stash. The case in the video above may look like the lair of a tiny, plastic supervillain but the beauty of LEGO is that you can take a design and make it your own. Depending on what bricks you’ve got laying around you can re-case your PC in whatever colour or combination of colours you fancy. The really ambitious could even modify existing LEGO sets to house a computer…

3D printer


A LEGO model that can build LEGO models? Welcome to the future!

Sure, the process is slow, requires very specific software and the only models that ‘Makerbot’ can currently put together are very simple, but it’s nevertheless impressive. It’s can’t be long until some clever clogs improves on the design and makes a machine capable of putting together far more complex models or perhaps even replicating itself…

Hamster elevator


Everyone loves to spoil their pets, that’s why diamond collars and those bags you can carry little dogs in exist. The market for luxury products designed for hamsters is a little limited, but with a handful of LEGO and a bit of patience you can install a private elevator in your hamster’s home, allowing him/her to enjoy levels of luxury usually reserved for the super-wealthy.

Toilet-flushing robot


The age of the service robot is finally here!

Why flush your own toilet when you can have a robot do it for you? After years of waiting, we’ve finally taken a step towards having Jetsons-style domestic robots. A loo-flushing robot made out of LEGO may only be a small step, more of a tiptoe in the right direction, but it’s a step. Best bit? the flushbot will thank you for allowing it to flush for you, ensuring you don’t feel bad for leaving him in the bathroom all the time.

LEGO Bling

July 21st, 2009

Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to make a bold and sweeping statement.

99.9% of the time “bling” looks ridiculous.

We’ve all seen the greasy youths hanging around shopping centres dripping in cubic zirconium. Their ghastly medallions sparkling like broken glass, not diamond, and their ears drooping from the weight of the glittery pebbles they’ve ill-advisedly attached.

These poor lost souls lurk in packs in dark corners, lording it over their urine-scented urban kingdoms. Their Lizzie Duke bling marking them out as overlords of  the doorway of the abandoned Woolies.

Somewhere, hidden from public view, a brave 0.1% are doing bling properly.  They are “blinging” the LEGO way.

There’s plenty of LEGO jewellery out there (just have a look on etsy.com) but LEGO bling, that’s a different matter. Full-on bling should have diamonds or gold or lashings of silver at the very least. Those materials are generally not included in your standard LEGO box so some clever folks have done some very outside the box thinking. BEHOLD!

1) The Golden Memory Stick of LEGO Goodness

Apparently when LEGO celebrated 50 years of interlocking plastic brick madness they released special gold coloured bricks. Creative folk leapt upon these shiny blocks and made all manner of wonderful LEGO creations, the best of these being the LEGO memory stick.

As a rule, you can NEVER have enough memory sticks. I have them littered all over my house, a few on my desk, one in the car and one in my man-bag, just in case. These days you never know when you’ll need to shift photos or music or work around the place to it pays to have lots of portable storage and if said storage can be made of golden LEGO then well, everybody wins.

Surprisingly for something so shiny, this LEGO techno-bling only costs around £19.

2) Jacqueline Sanchez’s Hinge Bracelet

Jacqueline Sanchez is BRILLIANT. She makes proper LEGO bling, she even adds the occasional diamond. The only downside is that her creations cost a fair amount, this particular bracelet (that I totally want, just so you know) costs $750.

There’s not much else I can say about this particular little gem, the price is something of a sticking point but I guess that class costs $750.

3) Mario LEGO Mega Bling

Mario is cool. LEGO is cool. Which means that when you combine the two you can be pretty sure that the result is going to be pretty sweet and lo, it is.

This stylin’ gentleman has taken the Flava Flav look and run with it. I have no idea if he made this beautiful creation or if he just bought it but either way, double thumbs up! Note the coordinated necklace, earring and sweater, now THAT’S attention to detail!

LEGO Sculpture, Not As Easy As You May Think

June 30th, 2009

When I think of LEGO® I think of castles first, closely followed by forests and then pirates. Many I’m sure, would think of Star Wars and a scant few would think of massive architectural wonders like the almost 6000 piece Taj Mahal set.

Apparently I’m lacking creativity. Rather than spaceships, pirate galleons and suchlike, Craig Stevens of Croydon ambitiously attempted to build Queen of the Undead, Amy Winehouse, from LEGO, in under a week!. He said “Amy’s distinctive features made her a good choice to make out of Lego.”

I assume Mr Stevens meant that Amy has considerably more right angles on her than most people and thus is far easier to make out of interlocking plastic bricks.

As you can see, Mr Stevens put in a valiant effort, his sculpture has a beehive and…and…legs, yes to some extent it has legs. At least there’s no danger of this version of Ms Winehouse getting wasted and running around with her top off.

The statue was build for Croydon Fashion Festival, I could be mean about the very concept of such an event but I’ve already suggested that a pop star may be the ever-living sovereign of the zombie hordes, so I’ll leave it.

Just in cast you were not terrified enough already, here’s a full sized one for you:

Return to LEGOLAND

June 15th, 2009

This weekend, armed with three tickets, a picnic and big dreams of reliving last year’s fun, I took the family to Legoland for the day. The sun was shining, Stanley was practically wetting himself with excitement and the lovely Mrs Lane was no longer “with child” – fun times were ahead.

Last time we went to the park, Land of the Vikings had just opened and the place was packed. We queued for up to 45 minutes to get on some of the better rides.

Now, I’m not sure if it was because of the new area, Kingdom of the Pharaohs, or if Legoland just wasn’t as busy as before, but the queues were significantly smaller this time round. A quick look at the board on entry showed waiting times were reduced to 15 minutes on average. Was it because there were more rides to choose from?

Anyway, we took advantage of this and went on as many rides as we could while trying to sample the few we didn’t make it on last time around.

And we did it as well. This made me realise that Legoland Windsor is actually a great place to take the family for a short break as well as a day out destination. The only ride we didn’t get on was Jungle Coaster – at five years old, Stan was still slightly too small to go on it.

If there was one attraction that was the highlight of our day, it had to be the Bob the Builder show in 4D. It was only 15 minutes long, but the show was actually (as my boss would say) awesome. I won’t spoil it for you, but I will say this: the effects were spot on and there is a lovely little surprise at the end of the show.

We left the park at 7pm (the same time as every other Tom, Dick and Harry) and proceeded to sit in the car for another 30 minutes as we tried to get out. If you like traffic jams, you can stop reading now. But, if you want to escape the rush, hang back for a short while. Eat some food, wander round the shops for a bit, practice speaking foreign languages – whatever – the point is, leave later. You will escape the crowds and still get home at the same sort of time.

Legoland Windsor was nothing short of brilliant once again – I really can’t stress how great the place is, you just need to go there and see it for yourself. If you have small children and live the South, there is nowhere better to take them for a treat. I look forward to going back there next year when Stan will be old enough to ride the Jungle Coaster and checking out the new zone for 2010.

My Favourite LEGO Minifigs

June 1st, 2009

Back in the glorious early 90s when I was a lad, in the murky times before mobile phones or *gasp* the internet, LEGO was king. At my school your popularity rested on two things; 1) The quality of your bomber jacket and 2) The quantity of LEGO you owned.

Tragically my own bomber jacket was, to use correct 90s vernacular, naff. It was from a market. We weren’t poor, my parents just disapproved of bomber jackets and refused to pay more than a tenner for one. I overcame this enormous social handicap by having lots of LEGO, so much LEGO that on one occasion I attempted to make and dive/swim in a Scrooge McDuck moneybin – but with LEGO. It went terribly terribly wrong.

Although volume of one’s LEGO box (for it was invariably kept in massive plastic boxes on proud display in the corner of your bedroom) was important, it was not portable. To showcase your impressive collection on the playground you needed something small, yet something that showed how many different types of LEGO you owned, that something was the minifig.

Minifigs were awesome and the more unusual your collection the better. Some had hand-me-downs from the early days of LEGO, these old ones usually had stories attached to them. “My cousin won it in a game of Magic: The Gathering from this kid from Botswana, he said it was the only green spaceman ever made.” Stuff like that.

Everyone’s collection was personal, and everyone believes that theirs was the best despite mine clearly being better. I present to you, my five favourite LEGO minifigs!

5) Ice Planet pouting girl.

I can’t remember where I got her, I can’t remember where she is now but what I do remember is that, in my imagination, this plastic sex-bomb was Robin Hood’s girlfriend. Just how a bow-toting British folk-hero fell for a red-headed lady space-explorer I’ll never know.

4) Robin Hood (Forestman)

Having done a spot of research for this it turns out that Robin was actually just one of a collection of ‘Forestmen’. Hopefully Ice Planet pouting girl will still love him despite his life being a lie.

The best bit about Robin is that he had all his little accessories. Quite often Robin would swap his bow for Ice Planet pouty girl’s chainsaw and fell a few trees around Sherwood while she shot some baddies. Good times.

3) Merlin

Alas, these days good old Merlin will probably just get called Dumbledore. I have no quarrel with Dumbledore, in fact, after Captain Hook, Gore Lane and every gentleman explorer of the 19th century, he’s my hero. Merlin stood guard over my magical LEGO chest (a normal, non-magical LEGO chest filled with shiny pebbles).

2) The Shark

Always and without fail referred to as The Shark, this slightly unconventional choice was my bath-time LEGO pal. Any toys without flippers, fins or an obvious re-breathing system were banned from my bathtime. The Shark was scourge of the bubbles and once attacked and killed (broke) my sister’s Little Mermaid doll.

1) Mr Spooky (Ghost)

Ahhh, Mr Spooky. What adventures we had together, we haunted the LEGO castle, we haunted the fridge and we haunted the hell out of the dog. My relationship with Mr Spooky conclusively proves that letting children under 11 watch Tim Burton films alone is a bad idea.

If you think the top five from your own minifig collection are cooler than mine (you’re wrong) let me know and I’ll update the blog with a few of the better suggestions.

The comments box ladies and gents, it won’t bite.